Saturday 17 March 2007 05.22 EDT
First published on Saturday 17 March 2007 05.22 EDT

Sally Clark, the solicitor wrongly convicted of murdering her two baby sons, was found dead by her family at her home yesterday.

Mrs Clark, 42, who served three years of a life sentence after being found guilty of smothering 11-week-old Christopher in 1996 and shaking eight-week-old Harry to death two years later, died during the night, said Sue Stapeley, a spokeswoman for the family. No cause of death was given.

Mrs Clark's family said in a statement: "Sadly, she never fully recovered from the effects of this appalling miscarriage of justice. Sally ... was a loving and talented wife, mother, daughter and friend."

Ms Stapeley said: "She was not suffering from any kind of disease at the time of her death, but she was not in the best of health." She said the matter was in the hands of the coroner.

Angela Cannings, 42, who served 18 months in prison after being wrongly convicted of killing two of her babies, said: "I'm so angry. This lady suffered so much, now she's died, I'm just shocked and stunned. She had found it increasingly difficult to accept what had happened to her. She was very vulnerable."

John Batt, a solicitor and writer who was a member of Mrs Clark's defence team and wrote a book about her ordeal, Stolen Innocence, said last night that she had never got over the deaths of her children. "I spoke to her this week ... she would have good days and bad days, but I don't think you ever can ever recover from something like that. Imagine being in jail where everyone thinks you are the scum of the earth, the lowest human being that walks the earth. The thick end of it is that she lost five to six years of her life in what was state-sponsored torture."

Mrs Clark, who was originally from Wilmslow, Cheshire, before moving to Chelmsford in Essex, had been convicted at Chester crown court in 1999.

When Christopher died in 1996, experts assumed it had been because of respiratory problems. Two years later, she found Harry dead, slumped with his head forward.

Professor Sir Roy Meadow, the controversial paediatrician, an expert witness at the trial, told the jury the chance of two children in an affluent family suffering cot death was "one in 73m". The Royal Statistical Society disagreed and wrote to the lord chancellor saying there was "no statistical basis" for the figure. Experts now believe the risk could be anywhere between one in 100 and one in 8,500.

In 2002 the criminal cases review commission, which reviews potential miscarriages of justice, referred the case back to the appeal court after it emerged there was clear evidence of a staphylococcus aureus infection that had spread as far as Harry's cerebral spinal fluid.

Mrs Clark was released in January 2003 after three judges quashed her convictions in the court of appeal in London. She had always maintained that her children had died of cot death syndrome.

The court had been told by Mrs Clark's QC that they had believed there was no evidence of infection. In fact, it appeared that the evidence had been known to the prosecution pathologist, Alan Williams - but not to other medical witnesses, police or lawyers - since February 1998.

At the time of her release, she said: "Today is not a victory. We are not victorious. There are no winners here. We have all lost out."

Last night, Mrs Cannings said she and her family had also struggled to cope after she was freed from prison. "When I was first released in December 2003 we went back to Salisbury and none of the authorities, social services, police, doctors involved before I went into prison, nobody came to see us.

"We came to Cornwall in April 2004 and we had to go to the authorities for help; nobody came to us. This is where I get angry for us as a family and the Clarks. It's almost 'oh well she's free, go home to your husband you will be fine'. It's so wrong."

In December 2005 Alan Williams was struck off the list of Home Office pathologists. Professor Meadow, now retired, was struck off by the GMC in July 2005 but reinstated by the court of appeal last October. It backed a high court ruling that he was not guilty of serious professional misconduct. His evidence had also helped to convict Angela Cannings and Donna Anthony in cot death cases; both were also freed on appeal.

Timeline

December 1996 Sally Clark's son Christopher, aged 11 weeks, is found dead while her husband is out

January 1998 Her second son, Harry, dies, aged eight weeks

February 1998 Mrs Clark is arrested

October 1999 Mrs Clark's trial begins at Chester crown court. Professor Roy Meadow appears as a witness, telling the jury there is a "one in 73m" chance of two children dying from cot deaths in an affluent family

November 1999 Mrs Clark is found guilty and given two life sentences

October 2000 First appeal fails

January 2003 Mrs Clark's conviction quashed by the court of appeal

June 2005 Prof Meadow appears before the GMC in relation to his evidence at Mrs Clark's trial

August 2005 Prof Meadow lodges an appeal in the high court against a decision by the GMC to strike him off